The gloves are off… EOS and Steem are in competition and it’s great news for us
Okay, so there’s been a lot happening over the last week or so and I having been across the comings and goings on Steemit in that period. Looks like I’ve missed some “handbags” (as we like to call it) between @ned (CEO of Steemit, co-founder of Steem) and @dan (co-founder of Steem, brains behind DPOS, Bitshares and CTO of EOS).
Uneasy truce
I don’t want to get into the “he said, she said” of the Dan/ Ned falling out but I think it’s fair to say it’s been brewing ever since Dan stepped down from his position from Steemit.
Now it seems that Dan will develop his own version of Steem and ‘right some of the wrongs’ of the platform as he sees it.
I love it.
Steemopoly
Competition in the blockchain social media space is severely lacking. About 18 months ago, I hypothesised that Steem would open the pandora’s box and we would see a host of alternatives to Steemit, that reward contributors to the platform in cryptocurrency.
Two years after the unveiling of Steem and there aren’t any real viable alternatives. It's been a Steemopoly.
This shows just have cutting-edge and specialised this technology is. Pretty much anyone can have an idea, create a token and raise some cash. However very few people can deliver a product that people use and scales.
EOS takeover?
We all know that Dan is one of those people. So any competitor platform he creates on EOS will need to be taken seriously. EOS have very deep pockets and Dan has the technical know-how to deliver.
So does this mean everyone should abandon Steem for Dan’s alternative?
I think not.
Dan while clearly one of the elite engineers when it comes to building blockchain technology does also come out with some left field ideas that miss the mark. I also I think the issue of concentration of wealth, power and influence is not one that can be engineered away. There is a danger of over-engineer a solution to what amounts to human nature. Ned on the other hand is more hands off (usually). SMTs is his big idea, it will be interesting to see how that redefines Steem.
Steem maximalist
Also Steem has a two year headstart in terms of network effect. Even I, as objective as I try to be able my crypto investments have a soft spot for Steem. I know how the Bitcoin maximalist feel about Bitcoin as I have a similar feeling about Steem when it comes to the blockchain based social media space.
However I believe that competition brings out the best in people. I’m sure Ned will have the bit between his teeth to ensure that SMTs are a success. I’m equally sure Dan will try to pull out the stops to show-off EOS as the ‘platform of platforms’ using a 'Steemit alternative' as a shop window..
All I can say is… let the games begin!!
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
It's a valid point there will be much more competition to Steem in the future, and if Steem doesn't change for the better to somehow give more credit to valid high-quality content, it won't survive a competitive attack. What do you think would be the most effective change to make to get Steem to a better place, in terms of having higher quality content? The severe amount of gaming, occuring, has an adverse effect on content and new PASSIVE (people who want to consume good content, not attempt to make money) users wanting to participate.
For example, we've noticed outsiders have VERY little incentive to sign up for Steem, unless they want to make a comment. But to make a comment, one has to do the cumbersome sign-up process, which is always a hurdle and prevents us from engaging in PLENTY of websites.
When you want to Flag them but see their Steem power lol
You should compare EOS and steem, not EOS and steemit.
Right! I was looking for something like that! EOS is the underlying network and there would still have to be a social media platform to come later. It is the network effect and steemit does have an advantage there. But I say diversify! Nothing wrong adding 1 or 2 other channels! :-)
the signup process is a complete joke. Don't worry, I'm abt to launch a Steem project called @SteemSmarter which will help out with the retention rate for new users.
Really like to see what you produce. Hope the casual reader can make comments and possibly become a more serious 100% sign-up at a later time. We always favor content sites where we can make Anonymous comments without a cumbersome sign-up process. But we also dig the ranking-system of making comments come in higher as people value them. This has been sorely missing in many many content sites, thus one has to "mine" laboriously for good content in the comments section. We say this bc we LOVE comment sections, and mostly find them to be more useful than articles. But on Steem, it's filled with lackeys and sychophants, and thus even with the ranking system it sorta fails.
Also, we shamelessly use self-voting, simply to get higher in comments sometimes, or get noticed, but kinda hate ourselves for doing it, and wouldn't mind it going away.
thanks for the feedback @olinmcgill and @harpooninvestor. We'll be rolling out @SteemSmarter very soon. A few days for a soft launch then an official announcement in Introduceme. I hope ppl find it helpful and if they don't, at least give us some feedback. We have a lot of plans for out we can generate various reports to help ppl make more sense of Steem. The difference b/t us and the current reports is that we're going to make the easy to understand and beautiful to read. Our creative director @crypthoe will make sure of this.
looking fwd to it, certainly send us a message w a heads up on its release, if possible. already following you from before, but that doesn't mean we'll catch it in our growing feed.
will do. Gonna make a big announcement early next week.
I volunteer to be a beta tester for @SteemSmarter. My observation as a regulatory mechanic is that the initial investment required to master Steemit's complexity doesn't produce a corresponding initial reward. Your idea below about using communities of interest to help new users find content equivalents for their old platforms is a way to increase initial rewards until familiarity opens the doors to other types of payoffs.
thank you @olinmcgill. Next week we will launch!
@harpooninvestor I share this thought with a friend. Although i started last month but registered in December i have been a cryto enthusiast and investor and i have observed steemit's growth from afar. The question is can steemit really survive a competitive attack from a platform whose style is blunt on having top-notch contents? I sometimes get discouraged when i see people post mere useless banners saying thrash on this platform and cart home 100SBD plus and yet great contents managing to churn out 2SBD.
The way it is built it seems that steemit isnt a place you can go to if you just want to consume good content and have no drive to make some dollars. You'll look strange and out of place and by the way wait for almost a week to sign up.
This reminds me of fiverr. Many clones came up immediately fiverr proved a success as one of the leading microjob site in the world. Gigbux, Gigbucks, Zerk, etc also came up but faded out in few months. Why? Fiverr worked on the lapses they see that other thought they could capitalize on.
I wish steemit can be as proactive as possible.
I rest my case for now. Great post @nanzo-scoop
We've heard about fiverr, but is it a crypto site? Might actually prove our point that de-centralized algo-run entities like crypto-ICOs and crypto-companies might have a disadvantage bc they are hard to change (see bitcoin, Lightning Network, Segwit, etc...).
If Fiverr is traditionally run, it's able to adapt more quickly to competitive threats. Dan Larimer himself may have left bc he realized how hard it was going to be to get change done once he saw how his latest experiment (steemit) had flaws he wanted to correct. why else start a whole new platform?
We put our ALL into posts, specifically our content, and would be THRILLED with 2 SBD. So we're not even getting that far. Yet no less than YESTERDAY we saw a steemer named something-geek (can't remember full name, just that geek was in his profile name) who posted a picture of himself on the toilet which made zero sense, but bc he's an old-timer (so mid 2016) on the platform he had a bunch of sychophants upvote him, and he made like $40 USD in about 30 minutes. Think that would fly on regular social media? He'd be crucified and unfollowed by literally everyone on the platform. So we stand by our "danger Will Robinson" stance, Steemit will need to improve a few things to survive a competitive attack by a newer platform who solves some of Steem's problems. Just look at what SNAPchat is doing to Facebook with young users. Zberg grabbed so much money from advertisers, sometimes spamming his own users to gain DAUs, he actually forgot to keep users' best interests in mind and is now losing them.
We're not saying Steemit can't do it, we're simply saying a replacement comes along more often than you think. AltaVista beat the others at search, then came Yahoo, then came Google, and now Twitter and SIRI and Snap and maybe even DuckDuckGo are offering tough competition lately. (check out the difference in the number of ads atop the google search results vs DuckDuckGo-- it's absurd! Google is torching their good brand name right as alternatives are popping up).
Wherever money can be made, there will be an element of gaming the system for personal gain. I think this is somewhat unavoidable.
There are things that can be improved . As you mention the signup. I'd also like to see the 'Communities' feature implemented as a means to enable people to easily navigate to content they like, rather than the current scatter-gun approach to delivering content to users.
Also more focus on other features of Steem beyond the 'making money' element. For example, censorship resistance and it's qualities as a medium of exchange (no fees, three second confirmation).
We understand a little bit of gaming, we followed Google since inception. But keep in mind google engineers were ALWAYS re-writing the algos to eliminate the gaming, thus having better pure search results. Crypto due to it's dispersed leadership has problems doing that. Currencies can be changed very little, but ICOs based on actual businesses (like social networking) require constant adjusting, and thus crypto companies actually have a disadvantage vs companies led by visionary single leaders/ceo/founders.
We'd settle for just some better search, the search is awful on Steemit. We have trouble even finding sports, or worse trying to just find ONE sport only. We don't like English Premiere League, for instance, but you can't get sports in a Steemit feed without it.
Good point about the incentive. It's true that it can be optimized a bit to make it a bit more clear what will be the benefits of being a member. With some better marketing. The sign up process of getting an account and be approved clearly needs to be faster in the future. But sign in to other websites I haven't found to be an issue since you can save your details. And it doesn't take that long to even input your information.
Right now on Steemit clearly to be rewarded it's best to focus on the comment section and produce high-quality content there. Isn't that 75% of the value of a blog post page anyway. Most want to hear other peoples opinions. The comment section is underrated.
Perhaps some recommendation engine on the side would be a good idea. Of articles created in the last 7 days. Like YouTube does with videos. That would surely increase the engagement. How passive new users will be can be interesting to see. Since they are used to that on the other platforms. Will they keep that behaviour on Steemit or will more switch into an engaged mode and produce value?
Isn't the biggest value on this site still that you can build more trustful connections with other people by using trust and reputation as a system? Since that can truly create lifetime connections! To create a competitor site to Steemit you would need more geeks right? Since there is lots of technical things that needs to be done right. Think that is why the market in competition has been so slow to react. It's just too complicated still!
I love your idea of a recommendation engine for Steemit. I hope that is apopted!
Does Robot Have Self-consciousness
This is SO SO SO true - "noticed outsiders have VERY little incentive to sign up for Steem, unless they want to make a comment. But to make a comment, one has to do the cumbersome sign-up process, which is always a hurdle and prevents us from engaging in PLENTY of websites."
You really made good point here and i concur with you. Steemit needs to wake up to a few happenings here. Some people are gstting discouraged somehow especially good content writers that has no whale friends that could help them earn. On part of steem activities on cryptocurrency market via value, i think Ned has to put work into practice towards the functionality of smt's cos time is speedily coming when it going to hit real good competition. @nanzo-scoop you are not sentimental at all and i love it when people bring up opinions very blunt and as plain as it should be. Thanks for this hint
I think technologies and projects that developed decentralized identity solutions will help this scenario. Identity is portable and in a decentralized model it can be validated and asserted easier than what we do today perhaps.
I agree with your point...
I too red the post all through, Yes....@harpooninvestor your comment is true, definitely steemit will have challenges in future like you just said. Because some people are somewhere else thinking of how to takeover the steemit. But the truth is, the CEO of steemit #Ned and #Dan should always make improvement to the platform. In terms of good quality and excellent content. and also we steemian should give our best support, so that we all have better achievement in future. They should please do something about issue of signing up process, because I have many friends that want to join the steemi but some of them are having confirmation issue. Sir, please find find solutions to this problem. Thanks
I hope it is healthy competition. Steem is great, but unfortunately there are less generous people like you, and most are out for themselves. At the same time most of us know the game and just need to get better at playing it. The human condition will not allow profit without greed so we gotta navigate. Like the great Mills Lane used to say, "Let's get it on!"
I can get behind this. Tyson is the all-time.
@ned would you care to follow me so I have a higher sp-weight from followers? you are doing a great job btw ;)
@ned glad you like it. Please dont bite his ear though. lol
lol
ha I have to agree with you on this @ned .. Tyson is the bee's knees..straight savage lol. This was the most entertaining comment section I could've come across. I want to Thank you personally for what this platform has done for me and my life. I can't really explain my gratitude about this.
Hi @ned, can you give some indication please around which date the SMTs will be released? I heard that Appics removed all references to it? Thanks!
The Steem SMT reference still seems to be be present in the whitepaper (and other doc) they're linking to from their website.
:-) You are a winner
@ned , must commend your sence of humor. we stand for steem but seems currently it favors the established whales and big guys with all the steem power. most of us who take time to create good contents are getting fed up as such, reduced and if you dont pay for bot, your work is lost. do something asap. thanks
i'd love to see something like steem except without the 90% (or whatever the heck it was) premine BS that the founders pulled. heck i've toyed with the idea of just taking the steem open source code and just starting up a clone without the premine. you have to wonder how things would have played out without this total centralization of power that we find ourselves in here.
Can you explain that @dhouse? Thanx.
Founders basically premined millions of Steem
Excellent Post. I invite you to see my postcards. Here I leave the link http://bit.ly/2EEedPF
I honestly thought Dan would leave after he first stepped down last year, but I guess he lingered around just to see how Steemit would develop. I'm sure he was taking notes for EOS!
Yep - Steem is a social media site and his using it just as intended. I.e. Taking advantage of his stake (powered up Steem) to get his message across to a wider audience. I'm surprised more cryptocurrency projects are not following suit and using Steem/ Steemit as a shop window to inform potential users what they are up to.
Oh no, competition! It's the end!!! Just kidding, competition is ALWAYS great.
Agreed! You spent too much time away from steemit. But...
you had a great comeback! You're top according to DTube - right after me, hahaha
Welcome back! Good to have you again on the screen :-)
Side-by-side at the top... looks good to me! :) Hope you're well.
Yeah looks good to me, too :-)
I'm ok, slowly recovering from a heavy bronchitis. Hope I'll be back at 100% soon!
wish you quick recovery and ask you to take out more time and keep warm. take lost of fresh lemon tea with some honey. regards my one and only sufer lady
Thank you sweetie! :-) Too kind.
Tomorrow I'll be back in the water surfing - salty water is the best cure of all, hehe
Ahh. That's the one and only suffer. Ok. Wish you all the best ma'am . Glad you back and get us some vlogs 😍
Hey @nanzo-scoop,
I think you have already said it all in this writeup;
Even though we all obviously love Steem & Steemit, we need @Ned to stand up to the game and pursue this SMTs & Communities with all his zest. Enough of dilly-dallying and wasting time.
This time I think the winner takes it all. Myspace had a headstart on Facebook but look where they are now- obsurity. Lets not allow history repeat itself.
@Dan is a masterchef when it comes to cooking all these sort of stuffs. And the financial muscles he has on EOS can actually pull all stops.
The best game for me will be that both of them lovingly compete. I definitely don't need all this hatred and all-what-not between them.
Thanks for raising this question bro. Cheers!
Agreed, I don’t mind fun competition but if it’s vengeful, it’s going to hurt both communities.
You just nailed it @nairadaddy, @dan is da gem
In regard to competition, off topic from Steemit platform....You want to dominate, don't compete! Leaders don’t have to compete because they set the pace and make the rules for everyone else to play by.
As a competitor, that is definitely the mindset to have.
As an investor, backing one horse while hedging on other potential winners is my preferred strategy!
Check out what I wrote about EOS. I really should have had someone edit
https://steemit.com/eos/@natxlaw/my-adventures-with-eos-and-other-tokens-pt-1
I have seen some Steemit alternatives although developed on ERC20. A bad idea in my humble opinion. The sites and apps are shaddy and actually having it as an ERC20 token basically means it picks up all the negatives of the Ethereum Blockchain such as fees and long transaction waiting times. In other words not good enough to compete with Steem.
Sola is one of the them. The other is Sphere.
There are plenty of attempts, I believe Akasha is another one. None have gained much traction. As you say, building something like Steemit on Ethereum is a non-starter as things currently stand.
Will be interesting to see how long time it will take before even building platforms like Steemit will be easy with some software. How will you still be able to bring many people to one specific place? I like what you said in a video on YouTube that the real currency in our age is Time and Attention.
Since our attention is so valuable we want to get maximum value back in return. Now Steemit is helping us by rewarding our attention with instant value as in upvotes. Since stuff currently stand with being a bit complicated it holds back some progress. But clearly it must be only a time when these things will truly be sped up. What society that will create is going to be interesting to see.
Will read your article you wrote 2 years ago about Steem opening up pandora's box seemed like a high value post by my fast glimpse of it. Thanks for the value!
Steem is only two years old. You can imagine being a trend setter the burden of trial and error falls on Steem. In the next 5-6 years you can only imagine how far Steemit will get if they maintain the same focus and attention. Things can only improve from here.
I've tried Sola and honestly was very put off by it. It's interface and how to browse is just garbage, nothint at all pertaining to my interests so there's that. The random feed when I tried it was just photography images, youtube video embeds and a ton and I mean a TON of cam whores looking to bank on their boobs (or they're catfish, can't tell).
i know sola @deniskj
havent heard of sphere. how does it work? wats the link
It looks a bit like Facebook but personally my opinion of it is that it couldn't look more shady. It is a pass for me. You can see it here. https://sphere.social/
Ok dear. Thanks . Will look into it.
Thanks for sharing
You're right this is going to be very interesting. Not just because there will be competition, but think about this. . . While Dan may have some way left ideas that don't really hit the mark, it's not always great to be the first at something, because there can be flaws, and if someone can figure them out, and beat you to market to fix them, and possibly exploit them, then they can become the leader. I know that Google was not the first search engine, but they're they were the first to do it a new way, and look everyone is trying to catch them now. So it's not always good to be first to market. . . . You're right @nanzo-scoop LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
Great point. Hence why it's best to keep an eye out for potential competitors and not take the status quo (e.g. the current 'Steemopoly') for granted.
I think this is great news and the Steem team needs more competition. It seems they've become a bit quiet and aren't publishing regular updates. I'll be watching this development very closely.
I would love to har something from the SMY side... If there is one thing i like from @dan is that he publishes these technical ideas regularly.... the SMT side is too quiet...
way too quiet. Make me think they aren't making much progress.